Microsoft's ambitions are anything but small. The world's #1 software company provides a variety of products and services, including its Windows operating systems and Office software suite. The company has expanded into markets such as video game consoles, interactive television, and Internet access. With its core markets maturing, Microsoft is targeting services for growth, looking to transform its software applications into Web-based services for enterprises and consumers. Microsoft has reached a settlement to end an ongoing antitrust investigation, agreeing to uniformly license its operating systems and allow manufacturers to include competing software with Windows. Microsoft is dealing with sales that fell short of previous years growth margin. They are also facing all the legal issues claiming they broke various antitrust laws. Microsoft has accomplished a strong hold on the software industry and is by far the leader. There are other competitors but none have such a strong grasp of the market.
Microsoft Building
Microsoft and Flickr
English: Windows Vista logo.Of the vast majority of the world's personal computers, 80 to more than 90 percent run on Microsoft software from the instant they are turned on. Microsoft is now working toward wallet computers that carry digital signatures, money and theater or airplane tickets; toward new generations of fax machines, telephones with screens, and car navigation systems; toward Microsoft-run interactive television boxes, office networks and wireless networks, and, most potently, toward an aggressive Microsoft role in the Internet itself. Microsoft already has a strong hold on the internet with MSN, Internet Explorer and there latest the Passport which will help them market other ventures by tieing the consumer's info into all aspects of sales.
By making connections among all these levels of modern computing, and by gaining control over the architectures that govern those connections, Microsoft is in the process of transforming the very structure of the world's computer businesses...